The Sarasota Alliance for Historical Preservation advances a simple, powerful idea: the greenest building is the one that already exists. By championing the adaptive reuse and thoughtful rehabilitation of Sarasota’s historic places, the Sarasota Alliance for Historical Preservation is making a positive impact in our community.

Sarasota Alliance for Historical Preservation advocates for policies that value reuse over teardown. The goal is to help owners and neighborhoods keep well-loved buildings in service, upgrading performance without erasing character. The organization connects owners, neighborhoods, craftspeople, and policymakers to keep well-loved buildings in use, strengthen cultural continuity, and reduce environmental impact.

As a Green Business Partner, the Sarasota Alliance for Historical Preservation works to reduce its operational impacts by prioritizing local vendors, practicing right-sized purchasing, and minimizing packaging in procurement and outreach materials. Additionally, they are striving to eliminate single-use plastics at events and recycle whenever possible.

Alliance Director Erin DiFazio notes that demolition sends large amounts of materials to landfills, while preservation follows the Alliance’s goals to reduce, reuse, and recycle. A study on the Alliance’s website by the Preservation Green Lab (The Greenest Building) found that it takes 10 to 80 years of operating savings in a new green building to recoup the climate impacts of construction, and almost every building type in every United States region showed better environmental outcomes through reuse than demolition and new build. The organization’s work translates research into practice, aligns preservation with Sarasota’s carbon reduction targets, and continues to support the Sarasota community priorities.